


Coloured By Smoke

by Taeminnye



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M, Multi, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2017-11-26
Packaged: 2019-02-07 05:11:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12834009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taeminnye/pseuds/Taeminnye
Summary: Chanyeol didn't realize that after graduating high school, he would be forced to attend a local school away from his best friend and stay at home. He also hadn't anticipated Blake Byun or, like his mother likes to call him, Byun Baekhyun.





	Coloured By Smoke

**Author's Note:**

> So this fanfiction is written as if Chanyeol and the rest of the array of characters live in Ontario, Canada. That means that some of places I mention (including restaurants, universities and colleges, cities and towns, etc) are real. I've seen so many stories based in America and I've always liked the idea of writing things that are familiar to me. However, I don't live in America so I can't write from that perspective either. While I haven't explicitly stated where I live, I've decided to write about places I can describe. I hope no one minds. if anyone would like, I can make a list of the places I've referenced at the end.
> 
> This story is also based on a lot of the songs from the self-titled debut album from Chase Atlantic and song, "8teen,' from Khalid. Lastly, I may change the warning if the story needs to be but for now, it'll be left as Teen.
> 
> Well that's enough of my rambling. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

There was a lot of ways that Chanyeol had anticipated for the year after he’d graduate from the confines of catholic high school. He’d go to Brock University, hang near the Niagara nightlife, chill in a dorm, and party his first year away as a humanities student. He was supposed to do all that and _more_ with his lanky side kick, Gabriel. However, he was instead stuck driving to the local community college, studying in a stupid General A &S course until he could transfer to something less adventurous than Brock U like “Trent” or “UOIT.”

Now don’t get Chanyeol wrong. Trent U and UOIT were dope places. Hell! Even that author, Yann Martel, who had written that Pi book that had _traumatized_ fourteen years old Yeol to death (How could one person survive _stranded_ with a lion alone? Wait. Was that lion actually a tiger?), had graduated from Trent! So, it and the other alternative weren’t ‘bad’ place to go. But it was local.  
Chanyeol had always dreamt of going ‘far’ from his tiny rural-urban, ‘country’ home. He would imagine the nightlife in a city like the one that was several townships away from his own. _Toronto_ seemed to be foreign. A city that appeared to never sleep, based on that one cheesy secondary school drama Drake was in. Chanyeol wouldn’t experience _that_ type of excitement in the township he lived in, which seemed to obey a strict ‘imaginary’ curfew of 9:30pm.  
He hadn’t gone far like Yura or even Chanmi. His eldest sister, Yura, had gone to Belleville to study something in film or broadcasting or something while Chanmi had decided to study at Ryerson in some business major. Had Chanyeol been the twin to be born 43 minutes early, Chanmi would have been the family _baby_ the ‘rents couldn’t _bare_ to send further than the college 20 minutes away. _She_ would have been the miserable one.  
_Not_ Chanyeol.

 

With Gabriel, his only friend, being in St. Catherines without him, Chanyeol had to spend the hour slot before his next class at the mall alone. While he could have stayed on campus and gotten the café food, the fries cooked there couldn’t compete with _‘NY Fries.’_ Chanyeol had gone with Gabe all the time in their last year of high school.  
They wouldn’t even change out of their bulky uniforms. They’d merely pile themselves into the rundown Grand Am, that spent more time in the school’s auto shop than in its rightful spot in Gabe’s driveway, and would speed erratically in the almost empty streets until they reached the mall. Gabe would always thank God before they would leave for the mall’s renos that added a parking lot behind the food court. If their religion teacher, Mr. Donovan, heard him, he would lecture the two for being blasphemous and suggest that the two repent in the school chapel. They would solemnly agree yet would giggle over his word above a shared extra-large container of fries and melted cheese sauces.  
Chanyeol sighed, his fingers playing with the small paper carton from his fries idly. He debated throwing out the crunchy remains and the half full plastic cup of cheese sauce and just head over to the bookstore. In the ‘book lair’, maybe he could at least pick up something to read for under ten dollars. Since leaving high school, he had stopped reading like he used to. What was the point when Gabe was no longer available to push him to competitively read with the book list?  
Chanyeol shook his head lightly as he got up to throw away his discarded lunch. He hissed when he accidently hit his finger as he went to place his plastic tray on the allotted ledge atop of the garbage bin house contraption yet ignored his pain. He merely jammed his hands into the pockets of his favourite sweater.  
Gabe had given him that sweater, Chanyeol had remembered without reason. The zipper had been broken prior to him being gifted the sweater and it had been four sizes to big for him so it had to be _at least_ seven sizes to big for Gabe. But those things didn’t matter. Chanyeol loved it regardless of its flaws. It had smelt of his best friend until the previous August, when Chanyeol could no longer steal Gabe’s cologne unless he was willing to travel to his dorm room a few hours away.  
The mall hadn’t gained its winter crowd yet. It was still early enough in November for the anxious, money-waning adults to put ‘proper’ parenting on hold until the black Friday sales. It was slightly refreshing to be able to walk to the bookstore without being jostled about.

When he had finally crossed the mall, passed the glorious scent of cinnamon buns and the tempting bubble tea joint, and entered the store of his desires, Chanyeol felt calm. Now, it wasn’t Barnes & Nobles but Indigo was basically the same thing. The best book chain in Canada, the teen thought as he stepped fully into the world of books and knickknacks.  
Chanyeol weaved his way throughout the shelves and displays, purposely avoiding the people and the atrociously whimsical children ‘room’, until he stopped inside the youth section.

He had remembered Gabe’s text through his trek to the store. His friend had raved about some novel his sister, Josephine, had gotten her ridiculously tiny hands on. Chanyeol had envied the sixteen years old the moment he say the price sticker on one of the novels peeking out from the shelves. While that book was apart of the book club’s reading list and Josephine could just sign it out, Chanyeol was stuck buying the it in between his classes for twenty bucks.  
The youth grumbled as he reached for the scarlet novel, the black words on the screaming out to him once he had it in his grasp. At least the novel was still in stock and the high school abiding _children_ hadn’t spent their student wage paychecks on them all. A wave of joy flooded Chanyeol as he hugged the book to his chest. At least he could still feel like the lower level student of his recent past.

“Park?”

The smile fell from his lips and Chanyeol’s body went rigid. The teen couldn’t bare to turn around. He could turn around because behind him, _behind him_ , there was some who knew him. Someone who went to high school with him. _They_ were the only cretins that decided that his first name was too difficult _not_ to butcher and had opted to refer to him merely by his last name.  
“Oh. My. _God!_ It _is_ you!” the voice gleefully cheered, its owner getting closer. The voice was deep, and its words were fast. Obviously, the person didn’t understand that Chanyeol was freely choosing to ignore them.

With a tense smile, Chanyeol turned on his heels and faced the intruder of his peace, his gaze hard and his right eyebrow cocked. The person before him was shorter than him or even Gabe, his hair honey brown and his pink lips stretched into a wide smile. He didn’t recognize the boy and it must have showed on his face as the boy’s smile began to appear confused and he started to bounce, his mouth moving to confirm that the taller didn’t recognize him. Chanyeol remained silent.  
The boy ruffled his own hair and let out a terse laugh. “I can’t be surprised. We did graduate with like 200 other dudes!” Chanyeol’s eyebrows furrowed and his forehead creased. This boy graduated with him? _Wait!_ Did this boy know that the school was co-ed or did he just call _everyone_ dude?  
The brunette laughed. “Name’s Blake Byun. Oh! But at home, my mother calls me Baekhyun. You’re, like, Korean right? You can also call me Baekhyun if you want. No one asides from…” Chanyeol began to tune out the Baekhyun’s insistent rambling. He was beginning to tire Chanyeol and for some reason, he couldn’t find an excuse in his head to leave without appearing to be rude.

Thankfully, at that moment, another brunette Baekhyun’s height hissed out, “Block-Ade! We’re going to be late, you chicken sack!” Relief flooded Chanyeol’s body as Baekhyun ceased talking and whipped out a cracked android phone from a pocket in his way-to-tight skinny jeans. “Fuck, fuck, _fuck!_ John, why didn’t you tell me it was 12:15 already?” Baekhyun whined. “I’ll see you around, Park,” the honey brunette promised before he dashed away, ‘John’ not too far behind him.  
Chanyeol sighed. Now he could get his blasted book, acquire some holiday drink from Starbucks in the largest size to soothe his nerves, and get back to school in pea-  
Chanyeol felt his jaw slowly unhinge. If Baekhyun said it was 12:15pm, then he was already fifteen minutes away from being late and he still had to pay for his book and hell would be damned if he didn’t buy Starbucks while he was already at the mall. Chanyeol hung his head and cursed lowly in Korean.  
As he went to stand in line, Chanyeol decided that it would be best if he never saw Baekhyun, or Blake or _whatever_ he want to be called, again!


End file.
